Jeremy Scahill, author of the bestselling book Blackwater, notes that "Blackwater Worldwide, the Bush administration's favorite mercenary company, is no stranger to blood -- its operatives have caused a lot of it to be spilled in Iraq. ... This week, the company received an award from the American Red Cross ... for Blackwater's recent blood drive, where company employees reportedly gave 264 units of blood. 'That means that well over 600 lives have been saved in this region,' said Georgia Donaldson of the Mid Atlantic region Red Cross. The group presented Blackwater's owner, Erik Prince with a plaque honoring the company. ... This isn't the first time Blackwater and the Red Cross teamed up. After Hurricane Katrina, where Blackwater raked in over $70 million in federal 'security' contracts, the company held a Red Cross fundraiser and pulled in $138,000 -- about $100,000 short of Blackwater's estimated daily take at the height of its Katrina operations. The keynote speaker at that event? L. Paul Bremer, the original head of the US occupation.".........................

By Mark Lowry
October 17, 2007
All citizens of the United States, be afraid, be very afraid. Private armies destroy liberty and democracy.

Lexington Kentucky Police Department paid for private Mercenary Army Blackwater Training while its Mayor Jim Newberry and its chief of police Anthany Beatty refuse free ICE 287 (G) training to protect citizens.Sanctuary City Lexington Kentucky in the United States Heartland is using local tax dollars to hire mercenary Blackwater soldiers to train the police.

Niccolo Machiavelli arms mercenary armies "Mercenary and auxiliary forces are useless and dangerous; and any ruler who keeps his state dependent upon mercenaries will never have real peace or security. ... Experience shows that only princes and republics with troops of their own have accomplished great things, while mercenary forces have brought nothing but harm." (The Prince, Chapter XII) It should be remembered, "anyone searching for the first cause of the ruin of the Roman Empire will find it began with the hiring of mercenaries" (The Prince, Chapter XIII)

Lexington Kentucky is on the following ignoble list of Blackwater clients in the 47th slot. Lexington officials have spent money on Blackwater training to round up American Citizens and lock us in community centers in event of a national crisis as defined by the president. The following article is very informative.

October 14-15, 2007 -- Blackwater training police in American cities and towns

The mercenary firm Blackwater USA is well known for the controversy involving its "shoot first, ask no questions" policy in Iraq. It is also known that Louisiana's Department of Homeland Security contracted with Blackwater to provide public law enforcement services in New Orleans following hurricane Katrina. Blackwater is also planning to establish regional training centers in Potrero, California and Mount Carroll, Illinois, billed as Blackwater West and Blackwater North, respectively.

These training centers, in addition to Blackwater's Lodge and Training Center in Moyock, North Carolina -- Blackwater East -- and a possible fourth rumored to be slated for the Pacific Northwest -- Blackwater Northwest -- may result in the establishment of a network of Blackwater-trained police, sheriffs, and other police units around the country. Given Blackwater's dismal record on human rights and brutality, this spells trouble for civilian control of police and paramilitary forces in the United States, from major metropolitan areas to small rural towns.

On October 14, the Washington Post ran a story, which included photographs from Blackwater's Moyock training center. However, what was most intriguing was a photograph of a police and military patch board at Blackwater's headquarters that indicated police agencies that have sent officers to Moyock for training.

A number of police departments trained by Blackwater have abysmal civil rights and police brutality records, most notably the Chicago Police and Illinois State Police, both cited by former Illinois Governor George Ryan as being guilty of police misconduct in his decision to commute the death sentences of Illinois' death row inmates. It was a decision that likely had much to do with his indictment by the Bush administration on corruption charges -- political misuse of the Department of Justice that has been seen in the indictments and investigations of Alabama former Democratic Governor Don Siegelman and HealthSouth former CEO Richard Scrushy, Qwest's former CEO Joseph Nacchio, Democratic campaign contributor Martha Stewart, Coastal Corporation' s former Chairman and Democratic contributor Oscar Wyatt, and Democratic-leaning trial attorneys around the United States, as well as the firings of several U.S. Attorneys who refused to engage in political prosecutions, and a Justice
Department workup on North Carolina presidential candidate John Edwards in 2004.

The training and potential political indoctrination of police officers by extreme right-wing and pro-fascist Blackwater, coupled with the politicization of the Justice Department and U.S. courts, has the potential for the streets of Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York, and Washington, DC, as well as Chillicothe, Harvey Cedars, and Elmira to turn as bloody as the streets of Baghdad and Fallujah.”

Citizens have a distinct opportunity of confronting their local elected city, county, and town officials over Blackwater training of their police officers. Local officials should be pressured to reveal the numbers and identities of officers trained by Blackwater, the subjects covered by the training, the revenues spent, and a public demand should be made to cease and desist in such training.”

Learn more about this sinister private mercenary army our founding fathers warned against at the following sites:

http://www.mindfull y.org/Reform/ 2004/FEMA- Concentration- Camps3sep04. htm#1 FEMA Concentration Camps: Locations and Executive Orders (Friends of Liberty undated 3sep04) “There over 800 prison camps in the United States, all fully operational and ready to receive prisoners. They are all staffed and even surrounded by full-time guards, but they are all empty. These camps are to be operated by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) should Martial Law need to be implemented in the United States and all it would take is a presidential signature on a proclamation and the attorney general's signature on a warrant to which a list of names is attached.

The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naive and usually idiotic. He is ,more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair. H L Menken_________________'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.

Iraq has taken the first move in effectively throwing Blackwater Worldwide out of the country, by informing the US security company that it will no longer be authorised to work within its borders.

Iraqi officials said that the US embassy, which employs Blackwater guards, was notified by the Baghdad government last Friday.

An interior ministry spokesman, Major General Abdul-Karim Khalaf, said that the decision was prompted by what he called the guards' "improper conduct and excessive use of force" in a shooting that killed 17 Iraqi civilians and injured dozens of others, in September 2007.

Five guards from Blackwater surrendered to the FBI in Salt Lake City, Utah, last month to face charges in connection with the incident, which inflamed Iraqi public opinion and soured relations between the Iraqi government and the Bush administration. ...

etc,etc... Now they can devote more time to terrorising their own country, I suppose?

Jeremy Scahill: ... I think that what we have seen happen, as a result of this incredible reliance on private military contractors, is that the United States has created a new system for waging war. Where you no longer have to depend exclusively on your own citizens to sign up for the military and say, "I believe in this war, so I'm willing to sign up and risk my life for it." You turn the entire world into your recruiting ground. You intricately link corporate profits to an escalation of warfare and make it profitable for companies to participate in your wars. In the process of doing that you undermine U.S. democratic processes. And you also violate the sovereignty of other nations, 'cause you're making their citizens in combatants in a war to which their country is not a party. I feel that the end game of all of this could well be the disintegration of the nation state apparatus in the world. And it could be replaced by a scenario where you have corporations with their own private armies. To me, that would be a devastating development. But it's on. It's happening on a micro level. And I fear it will start to happen on a much bigger scale.

A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company's owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," and that Prince's companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life."

These allegations, and a series of other charges, are contained in sworn affidavits, given under penalty of perjury, filed late at night on August 3 in the Eastern District of Virginia as part of a seventy-page motion by lawyers for Iraqi civilians suing Blackwater for alleged war crimes and other misconduct.

A hearing before Judge Ellis in the civil cases against Blackwater is scheduled for August 7.
--

A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company's owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," and that Prince's companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life."

Scum as we know Prince to be, we should also remember that he's merely an expendable functionary doing someone else's dirty work - probably Cheney, but we shall have to see where this case leads and who will and will not be sacrificed.

My guess would be that Prince is already an 'accidentally' dead man and any investigations will stop there. There's no trust in those circles._________________Dissolution of the Global Corporations.
It's the only way.

Pakistan's former chief of army staff claims Blackwater was involved in assassination of Mrs Bhutto
Tehran Times Political Desk
September 14, 2009

TEHRAN - Pakistan’s former chief of army staff, General Mirza Aslam Beg (ret.), has said the U.S. private security company Blackwater was directly involved in the assassinations of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto and former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.

Blackwater later changed its name and is now known as Xe.

General Beg recently told the Saudi Arabian daily Al Watan that former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf had given Blackwater the green light to carry out terrorist operations in the cities of Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, and Quetta.

General Beg, who was chief of army staff during Benazir Bhutto’s first administration, said U.S. officials always kept the presence of Blackwater in Pakistan secret because they were afraid of possible attacks on the U.S. Embassy and its consulates in Pakistan.

During an interview with a Pakistani TV network last Sunday, Beg claimed that the United States killed Benazir Bhutto.

Beg stated that the former Pakistani prime minister was killed in an international conspiracy because she had decided to back out of the deal through which she had returned to the country after nine years in exile.

Beg also said he believes that the former director general of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence was not an accomplice in the conspiracy against Benazir Bhutto, although she did not trust him.

The retired Pakistani general also stated that Benazir Bhutto was a sharp politician but was not as prudent as her father.

On September 2, the U.S. ambassador to Islamabad, Anne W. Patterson, intervened with one of the largest newspaper groups in Pakistan, The News International, to force it to block a decade-old weekly column by Dr. Shireen Mazari scheduled for publication on September 3 in which Mazari, the former director of the Islamabad Institute of Strategic Studies, broke the story of Blackwater/Xe’s presence in Pakistan.

The management of The News International dismissed one of the country’s most prominent academics and journalists due to U.S. pressure. She joined the more independent daily The Nation last week as an editor.

On September 9, in her first column in The Nation, Dr. Mazari wrote:

“Now, even if one were to ignore the massive purchases of land by the U.S., the questionable manner in which the expansion of the U.S. Embassy is taking place and the threatening covert activities of the U.S. and its ‘partner in crime’ Blackwater; the unregistered comings and goings of U.S. personnel on chartered flights; we would still find it difficult to see the whole aid disbursement issue as anything other than a sign of U.S. gradual occupation. It is no wonder we have the term Af-Pak: Afghanistan they control through direct occupation loosely premised on a UN resolution; Pakistan they are occupying as a result of willingly ceded sovereignty by the past and present leadership.”

According to Al Watan, Washington even used Blackwater forces to protect its consulate in the city of Peshawar.

In addition, U.S. journalist Seymour Hersh has accused former U.S vice president Dick Cheney of being involved in the Hariri assassination.

He said Cheney was in charge of a secret team that was tasked with assassinating prominent political figures.

After the assassination of Rafik Hariri in 2005, the U.S. and a number of other countries pointed the finger at Syria, although conclusive evidence has never been presented proving Syrian involvement in the murder.
**********************************************************
http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=203224

A federal judge's ruling Wednesday won't shutter a war crimes suit against the security contracting firm formerly known as Blackwater, despite the fact that lawyers must refile their claims against the company.

64 Iraqis -- including the estates of 19 who died -- have sued the company, now called Xe, for indiscriminate beatings and killings.

Judge TS Ellis III dismissed several of the suits on Wednesday, citing a new ruling by the Supreme Court which raises the bar for allegations of war crimes.

"Ellis's ruling was not necessarily a response to faulty pleadings by the Iraqis' lawyers, but rather appears to be the result of a Supreme Court decision that came down after the Blackwater cases were originally filed," The Nation's Jeremy Scahill, who has covered the case closely, wrote Thursday. "In a 5-4 ruling in May 2009 in Ashcroft v. Iqbal, the court reversed decades of case law and imposed much more stringent standards for plaintiffs' to document facts before going to trial, According to Ellis's ruling, which cites Iqbal, the Iraqis must now file complaints that meet these new standards."

"We were very pleased with the ruling," says Susan Burke, the Iraqis' lead attorney, was quoted as saying. A Blackwater spokesman said, ""We are confident that [the plaintiffs] will not be able to meet the high standard specified in Judge Ellis' opinion."
Ellis rejected several of Blackwater's core arguments.

Among them, Scahill writes, he took umbrage with the company's claim that "'conduct constitutes a war crime only if it is perpetrated in furtherance of a 'military objective' rather than for economic or ideological reasons.' Ellis said that under Blackwater's logic 'it is arguable that nobody who receives a paycheck would ever be liable for war crimes. Moreover, so narrow is the scope of [Blackwater's] standard that it would exclude murders of civilians committed by soldiers where there was no legitimate 'military objective' for committing the murders.'"_________________Simon - http://www.patriotsquestion911.com/

Blackwater's Secret War in Pakistan By Jeremy Scahill
November 23, 2009

At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, "snatch and grabs" of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan, an investigation by The Nation has found. The Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and help direct a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes, according to a well-placed source within the US military intelligence apparatus.

The source, who has worked on covert US military programs for years, including in Afghanistan and Pakistan, has direct knowledge of Blackwater's involvement. He spoke to The Nation on condition of anonymity because the program is classified. The source said that the program is so "compartmentalized" that senior figures within the Obama administration and the US military chain of command may not be aware of its existence.

The White House did not return calls or email messages seeking comment for this story. Capt. John Kirby, the spokesperson for Adm. Michael Mullen, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told The Nation, "We do not discuss current operations one way or the other, regardless of their nature." A defense official, on background, specifically denied that Blackwater performs work on drone strikes or intelligence for JSOC in Pakistan. "We don't have any contracts to do that work for us. We don't contract that kind of work out, period," the official said. "There has not been, and is not now, contracts between JSOC and that organization for these types of services."

The previously unreported program, the military intelligence source said, is distinct from the CIA assassination program that the agency's director, Leon Panetta, announced he had canceled in June 2009. "This is a parallel operation to the CIA," said the source. "They are two separate beasts." The program puts Blackwater at the epicenter of a US military operation within the borders of a nation against which the United States has not declared war--knowledge that could further strain the already tense relations between the United States and Pakistan. In 2006, the United States and Pakistan struck a deal that authorized JSOC to enter Pakistan to hunt Osama bin Laden with the understanding that Pakistan would deny it had given permission. Officially, the United States is not supposed to have any active military operations in the country.

Blackwater, which recently changed its name to Xe Services and US Training Center, denies the company is operating in Pakistan. "Xe Services has only one employee in Pakistan performing construction oversight for the U.S. Government," Blackwater spokesperson Mark Corallo said in a statement to The Nation, adding that the company has "no other operations of any kind in Pakistan."

A former senior executive at Blackwater confirmed the military intelligence source's claim that the company is working in Pakistan for the CIA and JSOC, the premier counterterrorism and covert operations force within the military. He said that Blackwater is also working for the Pakistani government on a subcontract with an Islamabad-based security firm that puts US Blackwater operatives on the ground with Pakistani forces in counter-terrorism operations, including house raids and border interdictions, in the North-West Frontier Province and elsewhere in Pakistan. This arrangement, the former executive said, allows the Pakistani government to utilize former US Special Operations forces who now work for Blackwater while denying an official US military presence in the country. He also confirmed that Blackwater has a facility in Karachi and has personnel deployed elsewhere in Pakistan. The former executive spoke on condition of anonymity.

His account and that of the military intelligence source were borne out by a US military source who has knowledge of Special Forces actions in Pakistan and Afghanistan. When asked about Blackwater's covert work for JSOC in Pakistan, this source, who also asked for anonymity, told The Nation, "From my information that I have, that is absolutely correct," adding, "There's no question that's occurring."

"It wouldn't surprise me because we've outsourced nearly everything," said Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff from 2002 to 2005, when told of Blackwater's role in Pakistan. Wilkerson said that during his time in the Bush administration, he saw the beginnings of Blackwater's involvement with the sensitive operations of the military and CIA. "Part of this, of course, is an attempt to get around the constraints the Congress has placed on DoD. If you don't have sufficient soldiers to do it, you hire civilians to do it. I mean, it's that simple. It would not surprise me."

The Counterterrorism Tag Team in Karachi

The covert JSOC program with Blackwater in Pakistan dates back to at least 2007, according to the military intelligence source. The current head of JSOC is Vice Adm. William McRaven, who took over the post from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who headed JSOC from 2003 to 2008 before being named the top US commander in Afghanistan. Blackwater's presence in Pakistan is "not really visible, and that's why nobody has cracked down on it," said the source. Blackwater's operations in Pakistan, he said, are not done through State Department contracts or publicly identified Defense contracts. "It's Blackwater via JSOC, and it's a classified no-bid [contract] approved on a rolling basis." The main JSOC/Blackwater facility in Karachi, according to the source, is nondescript: three trailers with various generators, satellite phones and computer systems are used as a makeshift operations center. "It's a very rudimentary operation," says the source. "I would compare it to [CIA] outposts in Kurdistan or any of the Special Forces outposts. It's very bare bones, and that's the point."

Blackwater's work for JSOC in Karachi is coordinated out of a Task Force based at Bagram Air Base in neighboring Afghanistan, according to the military intelligence source. While JSOC technically runs the operations in Karachi, he said, it is largely staffed by former US special operations soldiers working for a division of Blackwater, once known as Blackwater SELECT, and intelligence analysts working for a Blackwater affiliate, Total Intelligence Solutions (TIS), which is owned by Blackwater's founder, Erik Prince. The military source said that the name Blackwater SELECT may have been changed recently. Total Intelligence, which is run out of an office on the ninth floor of a building in the Ballston area of Arlington, Virginia, is staffed by former analysts and operatives from the CIA, DIA, FBI and other agencies. It is modeled after the CIA's counterterrorism center. In Karachi, TIS runs a "media-scouring/open-source network," according to the source. Until recently, Total Intelligence was run by two former top CIA officials, Cofer Black and Robert Richer, both of whom have left the company. In Pakistan, Blackwater is not using either its original name or its new moniker, Xe Services, according to the former Blackwater executive. "They are running most of their work through TIS because the other two [names] have such a stain on them," he said. Corallo, the Blackwater spokesperson, denied that TIS or any other division or affiliate of Blackwater has any personnel in Pakistan.

The US military intelligence source said that Blackwater's classified contracts keep getting renewed at the request of JSOC. Blackwater, he said, is already so deeply entrenched that it has become a staple of the US military operations in Pakistan. According to the former Blackwater executive, "The politics that go with the brand of BW is somewhat set aside because what you're doing is really one military guy to another." Blackwater's first known contract with the CIA for operations in Afghanistan was awarded in 2002 and was for work along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

One of the concerns raised by the military intelligence source is that some Blackwater personnel are being given rolling security clearances above their approved clearances. Using Alternative Compartmentalized Control Measures (ACCMs), he said, the Blackwater personnel are granted clearance to a Special Access Program, the bureaucratic term used to describe highly classified "black" operations. "With an ACCM, the security manager can grant access to you to be exposed to and operate within compartmentalized programs far above 'secret'--even though you have no business doing so," said the source. It allows Blackwater personnel that "do not have the requisite security clearance or do not hold a security clearance whatsoever to participate in classified operations by virtue of trust," he added. "Think of it as an ultra-exclusive level above top secret. That's exactly what it is: a circle of love." Blackwater, therefore, has access to "all source" reports that are culled in part from JSOC units in the field. "That's how a lot of things over the years have been conducted with contractors," said the source. "We have contractors that regularly see things that top policy-makers don't unless they ask."

According to the source, Blackwater has effectively marketed itself as a company whose operatives have "conducted lethal direct action missions and now, for a price, you can have your own planning cell. JSOC just ate that up," he said, adding, "They have a sizable force in Pakistan--not for any nefarious purpose if you really want to look at it that way--but to support a legitimate contract that's classified for JSOC." Blackwater's Pakistan JSOC contracts are secret and are therefore shielded from public oversight, he said. The source is not sure when the arrangement with JSOC began, but he says that a spin-off of Blackwater SELECT "was issued a no-bid contract for support to shooters for a JSOC Task Force and they kept extending it." Some of the Blackwater personnel, he said, work undercover as aid workers. "Nobody even gives them a second thought."

The military intelligence source said that the Blackwater/JSOC Karachi operation is referred to as "Qatar cubed," in reference to the US forward operating base in Qatar that served as the hub for the planning and implementation of the US invasion of Iraq. "This is supposed to be the brave new world," he says. "This is the Jamestown of the new millennium and it's meant to be a lily pad. You can jump off to Uzbekistan, you can jump back over the border, you can jump sideways, you can jump northwest. It's strategically located so that they can get their people wherever they have to without having to wrangle with the military chain of command in Afghanistan, which is convoluted. They don't have to deal with that because they're operating under a classified mandate."

In addition to planning drone strikes and operations against suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in Pakistan for both JSOC and the CIA, the Blackwater team in Karachi also helps plan missions for JSOC inside Uzbekistan against the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, according to the military intelligence source. Blackwater does not actually carry out the operations, he said, which are executed on the ground by JSOC forces. "That piqued my curiosity and really worries me because I don't know if you noticed but I was never told we are at war with Uzbekistan," he said. "So, did I miss something, did Rumsfeld come back into power?"

Pakistan's Military Contracting Maze

Blackwater, according to the military intelligence source, is not doing the actual killing as part of its work in Pakistan. "The SELECT personnel are not going into places with private aircraft and going after targets," he said. "It's not like Blackwater SELECT people are running around assassinating people." Instead, US Special Forces teams carry out the plans developed in part by Blackwater. The military intelligence source drew a distinction between the Blackwater operatives who work for the State Department, which he calls "Blackwater Vanilla," and the seasoned Special Forces veterans who work on the JSOC program. "Good or bad, there's a small number of people who know how to pull off an operation like that. That's probably a good thing," said the source. "It's the Blackwater SELECT people that have and continue to plan these types of operations because they're the only people that know how and they went where the money was. It's not trigger-happy *, like some of the PSD [Personal Security Detail] guys. These are not people that believe that Barack Obama is a socialist, these are not people that kill innocent civilians. They're very good at what they do."

The former Blackwater executive, when asked for confirmation that Blackwater forces were not actively killing people in Pakistan, said, "that's not entirely accurate." While he concurred with the military intelligence source's description of the JSOC and CIA programs, he pointed to another role Blackwater is allegedly playing in Pakistan, not for the US government but for Islamabad. According to the executive, Blackwater works on a subcontract for Kestral Logistics, a powerful Pakistani firm, which specializes in military logistical support, private security and intelligence consulting. It is staffed with former high-ranking Pakistani army and government officials. While Kestral's main offices are in Pakistan, it also has branches in several other countries.

A spokesperson for the US State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC), which is responsible for issuing licenses to US corporations to provide defense-related services to foreign governments or entities, would neither confirm nor deny for The Nation that Blackwater has a license to work in Pakistan or to work with Kestral. "We cannot help you," said department spokesperson David McKeeby after checking with the relevant DDTC officials. "You'll have to contact the companies directly." Blackwater's Corallo said the company has "no operations of any kind" in Pakistan other than the one employee working for the DoD. Kestral did not respond to inquiries from The Nation.

According to federal lobbying records, Kestral recently hired former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roger Noriega, who served in that post from 2003 to 2005, to lobby the US government, including the State Department, USAID and Congress, on foreign affairs issues "regarding [Kestral's] capabilities to carry out activities of interest to the United States." Noriega was hired through his firm, Vision Americas, which he runs with Christina Rocca, a former CIA operations official who served as assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs from 2001 to 2006 and was deeply involved in shaping US policy toward Pakistan. In October 2009, Kestral paid Vision Americas $15,000 and paid a Vision Americas-affiliated firm, Firecreek Ltd., an equal amount to lobby on defense and foreign policy issues.

For years, Kestral has done a robust business in defense logistics with the Pakistani government and other nations, as well as top US defense companies. Blackwater owner Erik Prince is close with Kestral CEO Liaquat Ali Baig, according to the former Blackwater executive. "Ali and Erik have a pretty close relationship," he said. "They've met many times and struck a deal, and they [offer] mutual support for one another." Working with Kestral, he said, Blackwater has provided convoy security for Defense Department shipments destined for Afghanistan that would arrive in the port at Karachi. Blackwater, according to the former executive, would guard the supplies as they were transported overland from Karachi to Peshawar and then west through the Torkham border crossing, the most important supply route for the US military in Afghanistan.

According to the former executive, Blackwater operatives also integrate with Kestral's forces in sensitive counterterrorism operations in the North-West Frontier Province, where they work in conjunction with the Pakistani Interior Ministry's paramilitary force, known as the Frontier Corps (alternately referred to as "frontier scouts"). The Blackwater personnel are technically advisers, but the former executive said that the line often gets blurred in the field. Blackwater "is providing the actual guidance on how to do [counterterrorism operations] and Kestral's folks are carrying a lot of them out, but they're having the guidance and the overwatch from some BW guys that will actually go out with the teams when they're executing the job," he said. "You can see how that can lead to other things in the border areas." He said that when Blackwater personnel are out with the Pakistani teams, sometimes its men engage in operations against suspected terrorists. "You've got BW guys that are assisting... and they're all going to want to go on the jobs--so they're going to go with them," he said. "So, the things that you're seeing in the news about how this Pakistani military group came in and raided this house or did this or did that--in some of those cases, you're going to have Western folks that are right there at the house, if not in the house." Blackwater, he said, is paid by the Pakistani government through Kestral for consulting services. "That gives the Pakistani government the cover to say, 'Hey, no, we don't have any Westerners doing this. It's all local and our people are doing it.' But it gets them the expertise that Westerners provide for [counterterrorism]-related work."

The military intelligence source confirmed Blackwater works with the Frontier Corps, saying, "There's no real oversight. It's not really on people's radar screen."

In October, in response to Pakistani news reports that a Kestral warehouse in Islamabad was being used to store heavy weapons for Blackwater, the US Embassy in Pakistan released a statement denying the weapons were being used by "a private American security contractor." The statement said, "Kestral Logistics is a private logistics company that handles the importation of equipment and supplies provided by the United States to the Government of Pakistan. All of the equipment and supplies were imported at the request of the Government of Pakistan, which also certified the shipments."

Who is Behind the Drone Attacks?

Since President Barack Obama was inaugurated, the United States has expanded drone bombing raids in Pakistan. Obama first ordered a drone strike against targets in North and South Waziristan on January 23, and the strikes have been conducted consistently ever since. The Obama administration has now surpassed the number of Bush-era strikes in Pakistan and has faced fierce criticism from Pakistan and some US lawmakers over civilian deaths. A drone attack in June killed as many as sixty people attending a Taliban funeral.

In August, the New York Times reported that Blackwater works for the CIA at "hidden bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the company's contractors assemble and load Hellfire missiles and 500-pound laser-guided bombs on remotely piloted Predator aircraft." In February, The Times of London obtained a satellite image of a secret CIA airbase in Shamsi, in Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan, showing three drone aircraft. The New York Times also reported that the agency uses a secret base in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, to strike in Pakistan.

The military intelligence source says that the drone strike that reportedly killed Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, his wife and his bodyguards in Waziristan in August was a CIA strike, but that many others attributed in media reports to the CIA are actually JSOC strikes. "Some of these strikes are attributed to OGA [Other Government Agency, intelligence parlance for the CIA], but in reality it's JSOC and their parallel program of UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] because they also have access to UAVs. So when you see some of these hits, especially the ones with high civilian casualties, those are almost always JSOC strikes." The Pentagon has stated bluntly, "There are no US military strike operations being conducted in Pakistan."

The military intelligence source also confirmed that Blackwater continues to work for the CIA on its drone bombing program in Pakistan, as previously reported in the New York Times, but added that Blackwater is working on JSOC's drone bombings as well. "It's Blackwater running the program for both CIA and JSOC," said the source. When civilians are killed, "people go, 'Oh, it's the CIA doing crazy * again unchecked.' Well, at least 50 percent of the time, that's JSOC [hitting] somebody they've identified through HUMINT [human intelligence] or they've culled the intelligence themselves or it's been shared with them and they take that person out and that's how it works."

The military intelligence source says that the CIA operations are subject to Congressional oversight, unlike the parallel JSOC bombings. "Targeted killings are not the most popular thing in town right now and the CIA knows that," he says. "Contractors and especially JSOC personnel working under a classified mandate are not [overseen by Congress], so they just don't care. If there's one person they're going after and there's thirty-four people in the building, thirty-five people are going to die. That's the mentality." He added, "They're not accountable to anybody and they know that. It's an open secret, but what are you going to do, shut down JSOC?"

In addition to working on covert action planning and drone strikes, Blackwater SELECT also provides private guards to perform the sensitive task of security for secret US drone bases, JSOC camps and Defense Intelligence Agency camps inside Pakistan, according to the military intelligence source.

Mosharraf Zaidi, a well-known Pakistani journalist who has served as a consultant for the UN and European Union in Pakistan and Afghanistan, says that the Blackwater/JSOC program raises serious questions about the norms of international relations. "The immediate question is, How do you define the active pursuit of military objectives in a country with which not only have you not declared war but that is supposedly a front-line non-NATO ally in the US struggle to contain extremist violence coming out of Afghanistan and the border regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan?" asks Zaidi, who is currently a columnist for The News, the biggest English-language daily in Pakistan. "Let's forget Blackwater for a second. What this is confirming is that there are US military operations in Pakistan that aren't about logistics or getting food to Bagram; that are actually about the exercise of physical violence, physical force inside of Pakistani territory."

JSOC: Rumsfeld and Cheney's Extra Special Force

Colonel Wilkerson said that he is concerned that with General McChrystal's elevation as the military commander of the Afghan war--which is increasingly seeping into Pakistan--there is a concomitant rise in JSOC's power and influence within the military structure. "I don't see how you can escape that; it's just a matter of the way the authority flows and the power flows, and it's inevitable, I think," Wilkerson told The Nation. He added, "I'm alarmed when I see execute orders and combat orders that go out saying that the supporting force is Central Command and the supported force is Special Operations Command," under which JSOC operates. "That's backward. But that's essentially what we have today."

From 2003 to 2008 McChrystal headed JSOC, which is headquartered at Pope Air Force Base and Fort Bragg in North Carolina, where Blackwater's 7,000-acre operating base is also situated. JSOC controls the Army's Delta Force, the Navy's SEAL Team 6, as well as the Army's 75th Ranger Regiment and 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, and the Air Force's 24th Special Tactics Squadron. JSOC performs strike operations, reconnaissance in denied areas and special intelligence missions. Blackwater, which was founded by former Navy SEALs, employs scores of veteran Special Forces operators--which several former military officials pointed to as the basis for Blackwater's alleged contracts with JSOC.

Since 9/11, many top-level Special Forces veterans have taken up employment with private firms, where they can make more money doing the highly specialized work they did in uniform. "The Blackwater individuals have the experience. A lot of these individuals are retired military, and they've been around twenty to thirty years and have experience that the younger Green Beret guys don't," said retired Army Lieut. Col. Jeffrey Addicott, a well-connected military lawyer who served as senior legal counsel for US Army Special Forces. "They're known entities. Everybody knows who they are, what their capabilities are, and they've got the experience. They're very valuable."

"They make much more money being the smarts of these operations, planning hits in various countries and basing it off their experience in Chechnya, Bosnia, Somalia, Ethiopia," said the military intelligence source. "They were there for all of these things, they know what the hell they're talking about. And JSOC has unfortunately lost the institutional capability to plan within, so they hire back people that used to work for them and had already planned and executed these [types of] operations. They hired back people that jumped over to Blackwater SELECT and then pay them exorbitant amounts of money to plan future operations. It's a ridiculous revolving door."

While JSOC has long played a central role in US counterterrorism and covert operations, military and civilian officials who worked at the Defense and State Departments during the Bush administration described in interviews with The Nation an extremely cozy relationship that developed between the executive branch (primarily through Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld) and JSOC. During the Bush era, Special Forces turned into a virtual stand-alone operation that acted outside the military chain of command and in direct coordination with the White House. Throughout the Bush years, it was largely General McChrystal who ran JSOC. "What I was seeing was the development of what I would later see in Iraq and Afghanistan, where Special Operations forces would operate in both theaters without the conventional commander even knowing what they were doing," said Colonel Wilkerson. "That's dangerous, that's very dangerous. You have all kinds of mess when you don't tell the theater commander what you're doing."

Wilkerson said that almost immediately after assuming his role at the State Department under Colin Powell, he saw JSOC being politicized and developing a close relationship with the executive branch. He saw this begin, he said, after his first Delta Force briefing at Fort Bragg. "I think Cheney and Rumsfeld went directly into JSOC. I think they went into JSOC at times, perhaps most frequently, without the SOCOM [Special Operations] commander at the time even knowing it. The receptivity in JSOC was quite good," says Wilkerson. "I think Cheney was actually giving McChrystal instructions, and McChrystal was asking him for instructions." He said the relationship between JSOC and Cheney and Rumsfeld "built up initially because Rumsfeld didn't get the responsiveness. He didn't get the can-do kind of attitude out of the SOCOM commander, and so as Rumsfeld was wont to do, he cut him out and went straight to the horse's mouth. At that point you had JSOC operating as an extension of the [administration] doing things the executive branch--read: Cheney and Rumsfeld--wanted it to do. This would be more or less carte blanche. You need to do it, do it. It was very alarming for me as a conventional soldier."

Wilkerson said the JSOC teams caused diplomatic problems for the United States across the globe. "When these teams started hitting capital cities and other places all around the world, [Rumsfeld] didn't tell the State Department either. The only way we found out about it is our ambassadors started to call us and say, 'Who the hell are these six-foot-four white males with eighteen-inch biceps walking around our capital cities?' So we discovered this, we discovered one in South America, for example, because he actually murdered a taxi driver, and we had to get him out of there real quick. We rendered him--we rendered him home."

As part of their strategy, Rumsfeld and Cheney also created the Strategic Support Branch (SSB), which pulled intelligence resources from the Defense Intelligence Agency and the CIA for use in sensitive JSOC operations. The SSB was created using "reprogrammed" funds "without explicit congressional authority or appropriation," according to the Washington Post. The SSB operated outside the military chain of command and circumvented the CIA's authority on clandestine operations. Rumsfeld created it as part of his war to end "near total dependence on CIA." Under US law, the Defense Department is required to report all deployment orders to Congress. But guidelines issued in January 2005 by former Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Stephen Cambone stated that Special Operations forces may "conduct clandestine HUMINT operations...before publication" of a deployment order. This effectively gave Rumsfeld unilateral control over clandestine operations.

The military intelligence source said that when Rumsfeld was defense secretary, JSOC was deployed to commit some of the "darkest acts" in part to keep them concealed from Congress. "Everything can be justified as a military operation versus a clandestine intelligence performed by the CIA, which has to be informed to Congress," said the source. "They were aware of that and they knew that, and they would exploit it at every turn and they took full advantage of it. They knew they could act extra-legally and nothing would happen because A, it was sanctioned by DoD at the highest levels, and B, who was going to stop them? They were preparing the battlefield, which was on all of the PowerPoints: 'Preparing the Battlefield.'"

The significance of the flexibility of JSOC's operations inside Pakistan versus the CIA's is best summed up by Senator Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. "Every single intelligence operation and covert action must be briefed to the Congress," she said. "If they are not, that is a violation of the law."

Blackwater: Company Non Grata in Pakistan

For months, the Pakistani media has been flooded with stories about Blackwater's alleged growing presence in the country. For the most part, these stories have been ignored by the US press and denounced as lies or propaganda by US officials in Pakistan. But the reality is that, although many of the stories appear to be wildly exaggerated, Pakistanis have good reason to be concerned about Blackwater's operations in their country. It is no secret in Washington or Islamabad that Blackwater has been a central part of the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan and that the company has been involved--almost from the beginning of the "war on terror"--with clandestine US operations. Indeed, Blackwater is accepting applications for contractors fluent in Urdu and Punjabi. The US Ambassador to Pakistan, Anne Patterson, has denied Blackwater's presence in the country, stating bluntly in September, "Blackwater is not operating in Pakistan." In her trip to Pakistan in October, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dodged questions from the Pakistani press about Blackwater's rumored Pakistani operations. Pakistan's interior minister, Rehman Malik, said on November 21 he will resign if Blackwater is found operating anywhere in Pakistan.

The Christian Science Monitor recently reported that Blackwater "provides security for a US-backed aid project" in Peshawar, suggesting the company may be based out of the Pearl Continental, a luxury hotel the United States reportedly is considering purchasing to use as a consulate in the city. "We have no contracts in Pakistan," Blackwater spokesperson Stacey DeLuke said recently. "We've been blamed for all that has gone wrong in Peshawar, none of which is true, since we have absolutely no presence there."

Reports of Blackwater's alleged presence in Karachi and elsewhere in the country have been floating around the Pakistani press for months. Hamid Mir, a prominent Pakistani journalist who rose to fame after his 1997 interview with Osama bin Laden, claimed in a recent interview that Blackwater is in Karachi. "The US [intelligence] agencies think that a number of Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders are hiding in Karachi and Peshawar," he said. "That is why [Blackwater] agents are operating in these two cities." Ambassador Patterson has said that the claims of Mir and other Pakistani journalists are "wildly incorrect," saying they had compromised the security of US personnel in Pakistan. On November 20 the Washington Times, citing three current and former US intelligence officials, reported that Mullah Mohammed Omar, the leader of the Afghan Taliban, has "found refuge from potential U.S. attacks" in Karachi "with the assistance of Pakistan's intelligence service."

In September, the Pakistani press covered a report on Blackwater allegedly submitted by Pakistan's intelligence agencies to the federal interior ministry. In the report, the intelligence agencies reportedly allege that Blackwater was provided houses by a federal minister who is also helping them clear shipments of weapons and vehicles through Karachi's Port Qasim on the coast of the Arabian Sea. The military intelligence source did not confirm this but did say, "The port jives because they have a lot of [former] SEALs and they would revert to what they know: the ocean, instead of flying stuff in."

The Nation cannot independently confirm these allegations and has not seen the Pakistani intelligence report. But according to Pakistani press coverage, the intelligence report also said Blackwater has acquired "bungalows" in the Defense Housing Authority in the city. According to the DHA website, it is a large residential estate originally established "for the welfare of the serving and retired officers of the Armed Forces of Pakistan." Its motto is: "Home for Defenders." The report alleges Blackwater is receiving help from local government officials in Karachi and is using vehicles with license plates traditionally assigned to members of the national and provincial assemblies, meaning local law enforcement will not stop them.

The use of private companies like Blackwater for sensitive operations such as drone strikes or other covert work undoubtedly comes with the benefit of plausible deniability that places an additional barrier in an already deeply flawed system of accountability. When things go wrong, it's the contractors' fault, not the government's. But the widespread use of contractors also raises serious legal questions, particularly when they are a part of lethal, covert actions. "We are using contractors for things that in the past might have been considered to be a violation of the Geneva Convention," said Lt. Col. Addicott, who now runs the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas. "In my opinion, we have pressed the envelope to the breaking limit, and it's almost a fiction that these guys are not in offensive military operations." Addicott added, "If we were subjected to the International Criminal Court, some of these guys could easily be picked up, charged with war crimes and put on trial. That's one of the reasons we're not members of the International Criminal Court."

If there is one quality that has defined Blackwater over the past decade, it is the ability to survive against the odds while simultaneously reinventing and rebranding itself. That is most evident in Afghanistan, where the company continues to work for the US military, the CIA and the State Department despite intense criticism and almost weekly scandals. Blackwater's alleged Pakistan operations, said the military intelligence source, are indicative of its new frontier. "Having learned its lessons after the private security contracting fiasco in Iraq, Blackwater has shifted its operational focus to two venues: protecting things that are in danger and anticipating other places we're going to go as a nation that are dangerous," he said. "It's as simple as that."

Get The Nation at home (and online!) for 68 cents a week!
If you like this article, consider making a donation to The Nation.
Reprint this article. Click here for rights and information.

About Jeremy Scahill
Jeremy Scahill, a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute, is the author of the bestselling Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, published by Nation Books. He is an award-winning investigative journalist and correspondent for the national radio and TV program Democracy Now!.

It was not a "ridiculous" dropping of the case by the US courts. The Judge did no more than apply the law. As a reading of his lengthy judgment makes clear, the prosecution acted improperly in using evidence that had been obtained under a promise of immunity. A more disturbing suggestion is that the US government knew this would be the likely outcome but continued anyway; i.e deliberately set out to lose.

Under the terms of the US-Iraq treaty however, while the US has the right to try its own citizens for crimes committed in Iraq, if the prosecution fails for any technical reason (which manifestly applies here) then the Iraq government has the right to institute a prosecution. The latest reports out of Iraq suggest that is what they propose to do. It will be interesting to see if the Americans abide by the terms of the treaty. It would be unwise to hold your breath.

The other remedy available to the families of the victims is a civil claim in the US courts where the standards of evidence are looser. Currently there are 13 such claims before the US courts. This is an issue that will not go away just yet.

As for Mr Prince's fate, he has publically threatened to disclose US government secrets via civil discovery should he be prosecuted. One would expect such "graymail" to rapidly lead to Mr Prince's "suicide" or freak accident. Given the man's track record however one would again expect him to have made contingency plans for the multiple release of such documentation in the event of his untimely demise.

For the second time this year, Blackwater USA founder Erik Prince has been tapped as the leader of a secret military being formed in the desert. In January he was reportedly at the head of a “anti-piracy milita” in northern Somalia. Now, he is in the United Arab Emirates.

The UAE confirmed Prince’s hiring, saying he was providing “operational, planning and training support” for them, but offering no additional details. Documents leaked regarding the deal with Prince’s new company, Reflex Responses, confirm that he is building up a new mercenary army for the emirates.

The mercenary force is largely composed of Colombians and reportedly also features a number of South African mercs who were involved in the Executive Outcomes corporate army of the 1990′s.

Officially the reason for the new mercenary army is “anti-terrorism” operations, but the force is also confirmed to be created to deal with “internal unrest.” A number of other nations in the region have faced pro-democracy uprisings in recent months, and the United Arab Emirates even provided troops to help Bahrain crush theirs. The UAE itself, however, seems to be taking no chances that its own military won’t be willing to crush similar demonstrations, and is preparing the mercenaries primarily as a force with no local ties which would have no qualms about opening fire on demonstrators to secure the regime’s control.

DVN shares surge as former Blackwater owner named chairman
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 14 January, 2014, 1:41am South China Morning Post
http://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/1404994/dvn-shares-surg e-former-blackwater-owner-named-chairman
Eric Ng
Shares of DVN Holdings, controlled by Hong Kong businessman Johnson Ko Chun-shun and state-owned Citic Group, surged 7.3 per cent after it appointed Erik Prince - former owner of controversial US security firm Blackwater - as chairman, and granted him more share options.
DVN, an online financial markets information provider, said in an announcement to Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing that its board decided to grant Prince three-year options for the right to buy 102.56 million new DVN shares - or 9 per cent of its issued shares - at HK$1.50 each.
This is in addition to five-year options granted to him that allowed him to buy 205.1 million shares at 73 HK cents each in late November, as part-payment for a start-up East African aviation and logistics firm injected by Prince into DVN. The two options mean he could own about 23 per cent of DVN.
"The board invited [Prince] to be an executive director and chairman in view of his extensive business and commercial knowledge and network in the aviation and secured logistics industry," DVN said.
Prince last November sold to DVN a company that plans to build a pan-Africa provider of aviation, logistics, risk management, security services and exploration support services, needed by many Chinese businesses active in Africa. He received US$3 million plus the first batch of options.
DVN shares yesterday closed at HK$1.61, up 115 per cent from November when DVN first announced Prince's business injection, giving Prince a potential profit of HK$180.5 million on his first batch of options.
Prince has logistics, aviation, manufacturing, resources and energy business interests in Africa, the Middle East and North America, and is the founder of Frontier Resource Group, a private equity firm active in African aviation, exploration, mining and logistics, DVN said.
He was also the founder of Blackwater, which he sold in 2010 and was renamed Xe Services and then Academi, after four years of federal investigation into allegations of sanctions violations, illegal exports and bribery against the firm and its staff. Blackwater was a security services firm that protected US officials in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The firm subsequently paid US$42 million in fines for hundreds of violations of US export rules, to avoid criminal charges, The New York Times reported.
Five Blackwater guards were accused of killing 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians in 2007 at a crowded Baghdad intersection, but a US federal judge dismissed the prosecutors' case in early 2010, saying it was based on sworn statements given under a promise of immunity.
DVN's board has proposed that the firm be renamed Frontier Services Group._________________www.lawyerscommitteefor9-11inquiry.orgwww.rethink911.orgwww.patriotsquestion911.comwww.actorsandartistsfor911truth.orgwww.mediafor911truth.orgwww.pilotsfor911truth.orgwww.mp911truth.orgwww.ae911truth.orgwww.rl911truth.orgwww.stj911.orgwww.v911t.orgwww.thisweek.org.ukwww.abolishwar.org.ukwww.elementary.org.ukwww.radio4all.net/index.php/contributor/2149http://utangente.free.fr/2003/media2003.pdf
"The maintenance of secrets acts like a psychic poison which alienates the possessor from the community" Carl Jung
https://37.220.108.147/members/www.bilderberg.org/phpBB2/

Erik Prince, the former CEO of the firm responsible for opening fire on Iraqi civilians, has the militarised solution to Europe's migrant problem
Starting the new year off with a bang, the Financial Times has just published a dispatch by Erik Prince, notorious founder and former CEO of the private security contracting firm Blackwater, the outfit responsible for projects such as the 2007 Nisour Square massacre of Iraqi children and other civilians.

In peddling his alleged antidotes to the crisis, Prince is symptomatic of a far more profound one
The company has undergone a series of rebranding efforts over the years as an apparent means of distancing itself from overtly toxic connotations.

According to its website, FSG offers “security and logistics services in frontier markets”.

A man prays in the Moria camp on the Greek Island of Lesbos in December, 2016 (AFP)
In an investigation by The Intercept, Prince’s activities at FSG were reported to include endeavouring to sell weaponised crop dusters in Africa as part of “what one colleague called his ‘obsession’ with building his own private air force”. As with many of Prince’s operations, a facade of legality has often proved elusive.

Suffice it to say that the Financial Times isn’t racking up huge points on the ethical front by promoting a man whose modus operandi has essentially been to make a killing off of killing.

READ: 'They started to die together': Can Egypt protect migrants in 2017?

In his memoir, Civilian Warriors: The Inside Story of Blackwater and the Unsung Heroes of the War on Terror, Prince writes that, by 2009, his company had received more than $1bn for its services in Iraq from the US State Department alone.

This is not counting copious other contracts in Afghanistan and elsewhere, including contributions to the CIA’s drone strike programme.

Saving the EU

In his Financial Times debut, Prince sounds the alarm that Europe has been overwhelmed with refugees and that the “very existence of the EU is in danger”. Luckily for humanity, however, Prince has “a solution that will restore stability to Libya and mitigate the crisis” - a solution he says is “based on many years’ experience in military and civilian business”.

Call me a party pooper, but I wouldn’t file the regular imprisonment, torture and rape of migrants in Libya under the category 'travelling unchecked'
Never mind that Prince himself is implicated in a fair amount of destruction and havoc-wreaking in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other locales that now serve as primary sources of - you guessed it - Europe-bound migration.

Prince’s proposed refugee “solution” involves a “public-private partnership” - a euphemism of sorts for what appears to boil down to a privatised war on refugees. He envisions “base camps” for security personnel “alongside a new border fence” in Libya, with border police “consist[ing] of mentors with a European law enforcement background, supported by locals trained in key basic skills".

Prince writes: “All personnel would be armed and have agreed-upon rules of engagement and migrant detention and repatriation policy. Each base would have airborne surveillance and search and rescue as well as armed vehicle quick reaction forces. Air operations would be provided by third-party professional providers, as would medical evacuation services.”

NGO Proactiva Open Arms rescues people from a distressed vessel in the Mediterranean Sea, 20 miles off the coast of Libya in October 2016 (AFP)
The “mentors”, Prince specifies, “would be the skeleton structure of the unit providing key leadership, intelligence co-ordination, communications, medical and logistics expertise”.

As for what global entity might be called upon to supervise the whole shebang, maybe something with the words “frontier services” in its title?

So much for paid advertising.

In Prince’s reality, the present dearth of Libyan border security means that any old migrant can “travel unchecked” to the coast and hop on a boat for the “short, if dangerous” ride to Europe.

Call me a party pooper, but I wouldn’t file the regular imprisonment, torture and rape of migrants in Libya under the category “travelling unchecked".

Free market obsession

Meanwhile, Prince’s fervent commitment to stanching the flow of certain humans naturally does not translate into an across-the-board opposition to human movement.

Perhaps mercenaries also hold the key to other persistent global issues like climate change and snoring and erectile dysfunction
Private security mercenaries, for one, should evidently be permitted to transcend borders at will - as should persons with the last name of Prince who relocate to Abu Dhabi to set up secret armies.

In his memoir, Prince reminisces fondly about Ronald Reagan’s free market obsession and anti-communist “aggressive military policy”, quoting Reagan’s 1985 State of the Union address in which the president once again obliterated any pretences to a separation of church and state in the US: “Freedom is not the sole prerogative of a chosen few; it is the universal right of all God’s children.”

But just as the anti-communist version of “freedom” meant freedom for capital rather than people, Prince’s conception is similarly exclusive.

Iraqi lawyer Hassan Jabbar, who was wounded in a shooting incident involving Blackwater in Baghdad's Nisour Square, lies injured as his wife comforts him in the hospital on 22 September 2007 (AFP)
While Prince and his bank account are apparently eligible for unfettered intercontinental exploitation of conflict and misery, poor folks fleeing war and economic persecution must be stopped at all costs.

Nor is “freedom” a detectable option for Iraqis slaughtered by US security contractors or Pakistanis killed by US drones.

In the end, Prince’s refugee “solution” is hardly surprising coming from someone who has also proposed combating Ebola with private contractors.

And who knows: perhaps mercenaries also hold the key to other persistent global issues like climate change and snoring and erectile dysfunction.

One thing is for certain, though: that Prince’s “solutions” aren’t aimed at any sort of resolution but rather at the perpetuation of strife in the interest of financial gain.

In peddling his alleged antidotes to crisis, Prince is symptomatic of a far more profound one.

- Belen Fernandez is the author of The Imperial Messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work, published by Verso. She is a contributing editor at Jacobin magazine.

._________________--
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.comhttp://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."

ERIK PRINCE, AMERICA’S most notorious mercenary, is lurking in the shadows of the incoming Trump administration. A former senior U.S. official who has advised the Trump transition told The Intercept that Prince has been advising the team on matters related to intelligence and defense, including weighing in on candidates for the Defense and State departments. The official asked not to be identified because of a transition policy prohibiting discussion of confidential deliberations.

On election night, Prince’s latest wife, Stacy DeLuke, posted pictures from inside Trump’s campaign headquarters as Donald Trump and Mike Pence watched the returns come in, including a close shot of Pence and Trump with their families. “We know some people who worked closely with [Trump] on his campaign,” DeLuke wrote. “Waiting for the numbers to come in last night. It was well worth the wait!!!! #PresidentTrump2016.” Prince’s sister, billionaire Betsy DeVos, is Trump’s nominee for education secretary and Prince (and his mother) gave large sums of money to a Trump Super PAC.

In July, Prince told Trump’s senior adviser and white supremacist Steve Bannon, at the time head of Breitbart News, that the Trump administration should recreate a version of the Phoenix Program, the CIA assassination ring that operated during the Vietnam War, to fight ISIS. Such a program, Prince said, could kill or capture “the funders of Islamic terror and that would even be the wealthy radical Islamist billionaires funding it from the Middle East, and any of the other illicit activities they’re in.”

Prince also said that Trump would be the best force to confront “Islamic fascism.” “As for the world looking to the United States for leadership, unfortunately, I think they’re going to have to wait till January and hope Mr. Trump is elected because, clearly, our generals don’t have a stomach for a fight,” Prince said. “Our president doesn’t have a stomach for a fight and the terrorists, the fascists, are winning.”

Prince founded the notorious private security firm Blackwater, which rose to infamy in September 2007 after its operatives gunned down 17 Iraqi civilians, including a 9-year-old boy in Baghdad’s Nisour Square. Whistleblowers also alleged that Prince encouraged an environment in which Iraqis were killed for sport. At the height of the Blackwater scandals in 2007, another prominent Trump backer, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, praised Prince, who once worked in his congressional office. “Prince,’’ Rohrabacher said, “is on his way to being an American hero just like Ollie North was.’’

Ultimately, Prince sold Blackwater and now heads up a Hong Kong-based company known as Frontier Services Group. The Intercept has previously reported on Prince’s efforts to build a private air force for hire and his close ties to Chinese intelligence. One of his latest schemes is a proposal to deploy private contractors to work with Libyan security forces to stop the flow of refugees to Europe.

Prince has long fantasized that he is the rightful heir to the legacy of “Wild Bill” Donovan and his Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the CIA. After 9/11, Prince worked with the CIA on a secret assassination program, in addition to offering former SEALs and other retired special operators to the State Department and other agencies for personal security.

Blaming leftists and some congressional Democrats for destroying his Blackwater empire, Prince clearly views Trump’s vow to bring back torture, CIA-sponsored kidnapping, and enhanced interrogations, as well as his commitment to fill Guantánamo with prisoners, as a golden opportunity to ascend to his rightful place as a covert private warrior for the U.S. national security state. As we reported last year, “Prince — who portrays himself as a mix between Indiana Jones, Rambo, Captain America, and Pope Benedict — is now working with the Chinese government through his latest ‘private security’ firm.” The Trump presidency could result in Prince working for both Beijing and the White House.

The Blackwater founder has also endorsed some of Trump’s overtures to Russia, saying: “Think about it: If FDR, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, can deal with Stalin to defeat German fascism in World War II, certainly the United States of America could work with Putin to defeat Islamic fascism. We don’t have to agree with the Russians on everything, or even on a lot, but we can at least agree that crushing ISIS in the Middle East is a very good idea.” Prince described Democrats as “anti-Catholic, anti-Evangelical,” saying the DNC hacks and leaks revealed “the disregard, the disdain they have for the average American voter and citizen.”

Prince has a close relationship with Breitbart News and Steve Bannon, Trump’s senior counselor and chief strategist. Prince has appeared frequently — and almost exclusively — on Breitbart Radio. In August, Prince offered praise for Trump’s candidacy, telling Breitbart’s Milo Yiannopoulos: “I even like some of his projects that have gone bankrupt, because people that do things, and build things, and try things, sometimes fail at doing it, and that’s the strength of the American capitalist system.” Prince added: “We have kind of turned our back on the fact that hard work, sacrifice, risk-taking, innovation, is what made America great. Washington did not make America great.”

In September, Prince backed Trump’s proposal to commandeer Iraq’s 2 million barrels of daily oil output. “For Mr. Trump to say, ‘We’re going to take their oil — certainly we’re not going to lift it out of there and take it somewhere else, but putting it into production, and putting a tolling arrangement into place, to repay the American taxpayers for their efforts to remove Saddam and to stabilize the area, is doable, and very plausible,” Prince said on Breitbart Radio.

Prince’s sister, Betsy DeVos, is Trump’s nominee for education secretary and she has all but vowed to embark on a crusade to push a privatization and religious agenda in education that mirrors her brother’s in military and CIA affairs. Prince has long been a contributor to the campaign of fellow Christian warrior Mike Pence, and he contributed $100,000 to the pro-Trump Super PAC Make America Number 1. Prince’s mother, Elsa, pitched in another $50,000. That organization, run by Rebekah Mercer, daughter of billionaire hedge funder Robert Mercer, was one of the strongest bankrollers of Trump’s campaign.

According to New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, in December Prince attended the annual “Villains and Heroes” costume ball hosted by Mercer. Dowd wrote that Palantir founder Peter Thiel showed her “a picture on his phone of him posing with Erik Prince, who founded the private military company Blackwater, and Mr. Trump — who had no costume — but joke[d] that it was ‘N.S.F.I.’ (Not Safe for the Internet).”

Not even Trump is brazen enough to give Prince a public post in his administration. But Prince is operating in the shadows, where he has always been most at home.

Top Photo: Erik Prince listens during an interview in Washington on Jan. 31, 2014.

We depend on the support of readers like you to help keep our nonprofit newsroom strong and independent. Join Us
RELATED
Inside Erik Prince’s Treacherous Drive to Build a Private Air Force
Blackwater’s Founder Is Under Investigation for Money Laundering, Ties to Chinese Intel, and Brokering Mercenary Services
Father of Blackwater Victim: “Too Late” for Apologies
Blackwater Founder Remains Free and Rich While His Former Employees Go Down on Murder Charges
CONTACT THE AUTHOR:
Jeremy Scahill
jeremy.scahill@​theintercept.com
@jeremyscahill_________________--
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.comhttp://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."

1
Blackwater Security founder Erik Prince told US House lawmakers conducting the Russia probe that he discussed US trade policy with Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian government’s investment fund in January, but insisted he wasn’t operating as a back-channel for the incoming Trump administration.

Prince, chairman of the Hong-Kong-based Frontier Services Group, said he knew Dmitriev was a Russian fund manager, but didn’t realise that the Russian government controlled it and that it had been sanctioned by the US since 2015 due to Russia’s actions in Ukraine.

Erik Prince, chairman of the Hong-Kong-based Frontier Services Group. Photo: MCT
The House Intelligence Committee released Wednesday a 105-page transcript of his December 1 testimony to its Russia probe, where he was asked about the January 11 meeting in the Seychelles, a remote Indian Ocean archipelago off East Africa.

That meeting has drawn the attention of congressional committees looking into potentially improper contacts between the Trump campaign and transition team with Russians, and sparked questions about whether Prince may have been an unofficial envoy on behalf of Trump or his associates.

Prince, a former US Navy SEAL and the brother of Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos, denied that. He told the committee he had travelled to the Seychelles nine days before Trump’s inauguration to meet with some potential business customers from the United Arab Emirates.

During that meeting, he said, those potential customers simply “mentioned a guy who I should also meet who was also in town.”

ADVERTISING

inRead invented by Teads
He recounted meeting Dmitriev at a hotel bar, where they discussed topics ranging from oil to commodity prices. He also said that Dmitriev discussed how much his country wished to resume normal trade relations with the US.

SCMP TODAY: HK EDITION
Get updates direct to your inbox

Enter your email address

By registering you agree to our T&Cs & Privacy Policy
“I remember telling him that if Franklin Roosevelt could work with Joseph Stalin to defeat Nazi fascism, then certainly Donald Trump could work with Vladimir Putin to defeat Islamic fascism,” said Prince.

Prince said the meeting lasted 30 minutes.

“So, this notion you were representing the Trump campaign is not true?” Representative Tom Rooney, a Florida Republican, asked him.

“That is correct,” said Prince. “I played no official or, really, unofficial role,” he said of the campaign.

Russian Direct Investment Fund CEO Kirill Dmitriev. Photo: Handout
He said he met Trump himself only once, at a fundraiser prior to the election. He said he was simply a donor, and that he had written some foreign policy papers “into the adviser sphere on what should be done on Middle Eastern or counterterrorism issues.”

After the release of the transcript Wednesday, Representative Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the committee, issued a statement asserting Prince was less than forthcoming about details of the meeting and sought to portray the discussion with Dmitriev as “merely coincidental.”

“Prince also could not adequately explain why he travelled halfway around the world to meet with UAE officials and, ultimately, the head of the Russian fund,” said Schiff.

Schiff also noted that in his testimony, Prince acknowledged that he learned from Trump’s chief campaign strategist Steve Bannon about a secret December 2016 meeting in New York City between high-ranking Trump transition and UAE officials, included the emirate’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. But Prince declined to provide the committee with many specifics of his discussion with Bannon.

Prince also complained during his testimony about US intelligence community spying on Americans, and so-called improper identifying or “unmasking” of Americans caught up in surveillance of foreigners.

“What really bothers me and what I hope the Intelligence Committee is doing is questioning why Americans that were caught in waves of signals intelligence, why on Earth would the Washington Post be running an article on any meeting that a private citizen, me, was having in a foreign country,” he said. “That is illegal.”

Prince claimed to have received a leak of classified information from former intelligence community employees regarding his trip to the Seychelles, but Schiff said he refused to disclose who provided him the information.

Prince is best known for his role running Blackwater, which was hired to provide private security during the US war in Iraq. Controversy erupted in 2007, when Blackwater guards stopping traffic for a State Department convoy shot and killed 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians during a chaotic scene in Baghdad’s Nisour Square.

Bloomberg
MORE ARTICLES BY
Bloomberg
Move over, doughnuts: flashy croissants are all the rage
Zuckerberg loses US$2.9b after revealing bold changes to Facebook
China’s ZTE to launch 5G smartphone in US by early 2019
MORE ON THIS STORY
Ex-chief of Trump campaign Paul Manafort pleads not guilty after Russia probe leads to first indictments
FBI chief Comey sought funds to expand Russia probe, days before Trump fired him
Trump decries ‘phony’ report that Russia probe is widening to examine if he tried to obstruct justice
ABC suspends journalist Brian Ross over inaccurate Donald Trump, Michael Flynn report
Trump’s ex-security adviser Michael Flynn admits lying to FBI about Russian contacts
READ COMMENTS
MORE ON UNITED STATES & CANADA
File phot of the Pentagon. Photo: AFP
UNITED STATES & CANADA
Leaked Pentagon paper reveals urge for new nuclear weapons
Robert Mercer plays in the World Poker Tour in 2012. He is a reclusive hedge fund billionaire who made a fortune using complicated algorithms to bet on things other people could not see. One of his gambles was on Donald Trump. Photo: World Poker Tour
UNITED STATES & CANADA
Robert Mercer: billionaire power broker who gambled on…
The expletive US President Donald Trump used last week in a discussion about immigration in the Oval Office and other slogans were projected Saturday night onto an outer wall of the Trump Hotel in downtown Washington. Photo: Twitter
UNITED STATES & CANADA
‘S***hole’ slur used by US president projected onto…
The US president’s boast about his bigger nuclear button has roots in imperialism’s use of phallic domination as a tool for power projection
OPINION
Trump’s big button to Thai penis whitening: hail the…
Transgender whistle-blower Chelsea Manning, jailed for leaking classified information, is seeking election in the US state of Maryland. Photo: Abacapress.com
UNITED STATES & CANADA
Senator Manning? Whistle-blower’s political bid a…
Mark Wahlberg and co-star Michelle Williams. Photo: AFP
UNITED STATES & CANADA
After outcry, Wahlberg donates US$1.5 million fee for…
The emergency notice was triggered after an employee pushed the wrong button during a shift change at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency
UNITED STATES & CANADA
For 38 terrifying minutes, Hawaii braced for a ‘missile…
READ FULL ARTICLE
Donald Trump
While Fire and Fury certainly has a soap-opera element to it, it might not be gossipy enough for some. Photo: Reuters BOOKS
Do you follow Trump’s Twitter, like Dallas but not The Bachelor? Fire and Fury is definitely for you
Everyone is raving about it, but should you read Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury? Here are some simple questions that will help guide your decision
Tribune News ServiceTribune News Service
UPDATED : Sunday, 14 Jan 2018, 8:02PM

The book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff is the biggest literary sensation in a long time.

US President Donald Trump’s lawyers tried to block its publication; in response, publisher Henry Holt decided to publish Fire and Fury four days early, on January 5.

‘Are people that dumb?’: Canadian professor’s decade-old military history, ‘Fire and Fury’, is an unexpected bestseller

There are many questions about the book, not the least of which is how much is verifiably true. But it seems to me the simplest question you should ask is: should I read it?

Here, we try to guide you to the answer.

Do you follow Trump on Twitter?

If you have been reading Trump’s tweets, you know that he is inclined to make loaded pronouncements with questionable grammar. So it will come as no surprise that, as Wolff describes it, Trump sees policy briefs as homework to be avoided, and that his White House agenda is driven more by personality than consideration of the issues – and you’ll probably be fascinated. Whether you follow Trump on Twitter out of devotion or outrage, the answer is simple: yes, read it.

Some people believe that for all practical purposes Trump was no more than semi-literate, Wolff writes in his book. Photo: EPA-EFE

STYLE
Get updates direct to your inbox

Enter your email address

By registering you agree to our T&Cs & Privacy Policy
Do you like Empire, Dallas or All My Children?

There is definitely a soap-opera element to Fire and Fury. Wolff lays out the conflicts between Steve Bannon, Jared Kushner and Reince Priebus as each tries to be the power behind the Trump White House.

Admittedly, there are no great songs or evil twins, but there is manipulation and betrayal. This would be the case for any White House but more so in this one – which is portrayed as being unmoored from ideology and policy and driven by the whims of its malleable leader. Does that sound fun to you? Then yes, read it.

Forget Fire and Fury and focus on what matters: solid US jobs, wages and consumer spending

Does this passage make your blood boil?

“Nearly all meetings in the Oval with the president were invariably surrounded and interrupted by a long list of retainers – indeed, everybody strove to be in every meeting. Furtive people skulked around without clear purpose: Bannon invariably found some reason to study papers in the corner and then to have a last word; Priebus kept his eye on Bannon; Kushner kept constant tabs on the whereabouts of the others. Trump liked to keep Hicks, Conway, and, often, his old Apprentice sidekick Omarosa Manigault – now with a confounding White House title – in constant hovering presence. As always, Trump wanted an eager audience, encouraging as many people as possible to make as many attempts as possible to be as close to him as possible.”

If that upsets you – if, say, you believe the US presidency is a serious business that should be undertaken with humility and duty – then this book will not be good for your health. No, don’t read it.

Wolff was a dab hand at spilling others’ secrets during his time at Vanity Fair. Photo: AP

Did you vote for Hillary Clinton?

If you voted for Hillary Clinton, chances are this book will reinforce what you concluded about Donald Trump during the campaign. It intimates that he wasn’t prepared for the White House, portraying key staffers, family and even himself as not expecting to win. Once the presidency was his, chaos ensued.

Some Clinton fans will take painful pleasure in seeing just how right they were; others will not be able to bear it. Should you read it? Maybe yes, maybe no.

Do you adore Real Housewives or The Bachelor?

Who can’t resist a good drunken argument, burst of tears or table flip? Wolff, after a long stint at Vanity Fair where he was known for spilling secrets many in New York media preferred to keep quiet, would seem to be the right guy to get and share the juiciest stories of the Trump White House.

Ivanka Trump (left), her husband Jared Kushner and Tiffany Trump all play roles in the book, though not as extensively as some might have liked. Photo: AFP

Sadly, though, the book is not as gossipy as you might hope. The chapter on Jared and Ivanka (titled “Jarvanka”) only briefly eavesdrops on Ivanka at a breakfast meeting at the Four Seasons. The book is also lacking nasty moments (except in the words of one aide talking about another) and doesn’t have the outrageous drama of reality TV. Do not read.

Did you vote for Trump?

If you voted for Donald Trump, this book will probably entertain you. It’s not surprising, after all, that the man who came from outside Washington DC refuses to do things the way Washington typically does. The infighting between his chief aides is also nothing new – it’s just shown in close-up. Trump is not portrayed flatteringly, but Wolff isn’t attempting to criticise his modes of management and governance – just to share them. If you voted for Trump, yes, read it.

Trump’s hair – which came under fire from his own daughter Ivanka in Fire and Fury – shines as he speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House earlier this month. Photo: AFP

Do you like reading?

At some points, Wolff appears to be exasperated with Trump’s resistance to reading. Writing, after all, is Wolff’s livelihood, so why shouldn’t he be slightly annoyed that the president decided to add more TV screens to his White House bedroom rather than, say, settle down to read a briefing folder or even a good book once in a while?

“Trump didn’t read. He didn’t really even skim. If it was print, it might as well not exist. Some believed that for all practical purposes he was no more than semi-literate,” Wolff writes.

Book review – Fire and Fury is a must-read toxic tale of Trump’s White House, with Bannon’s voice the loudest

If you like reading, you can enjoy the process of reading this book, but the subject may get under your skin. But heck, you’re a reader. So yes, read it.

Tribune News Service
MORE ARTICLES BY
Tribune News Service
Firebrand sheriff renews ‘birther’ claim to coincide with Senate bid
Iran just spared the lives of thousands on death row
Hollywood pay gap: he got paid 1,500 times more for reshoots
MORE ON THIS STORY
Book review – Fire and Fury is a must-read toxic tale of Trump’s White House, with Bannon’s voice the loudest
POST COMMENT
MORE ON BOOKS
What a difference a few decades make – or do they? Our reporter journeys back to a tourism-free time of wonder
LONG READS
Yunnan revisited: on the trail of late travel writer…
Indian author Jeet Thayil, who spent his teenage years in Hong Kong. Picture: Alamy
BOOKS
Novel dissects the dissolute lives of India’s bohemian…
Trump’s circle of ‘friends’, family and acquaintances are unsparing in their criticisms of the president throughout Fire and Fury. Photo: Washington Post
BOOKS
Review: Fire and Fury – must-read toxic tale of Trump’s…
The title page of 18th-century book A Description of Formosa by George Psalmanazar.
BOOKS
Con artist’s tale The Formosa Fraud shows fake news is…
What will we be reading in 2018?
BOOKS
Turning the page: the must-read books to hunt down in 2018
The War for China’s Wallet is a readable look at Chinese business.
BOOKS
Book review: The War for China’s Wallet – readable if…
With Chinese culture in Malaysia under pressure and their work not recognised as part of the nation’s literary canon, many writers have since the 1960s chosen to leave for Taiwan, where they find acceptance and appreciation
LIFESTYLE
Why Chinese Malaysian writers go to Taiwan to find…
READ FULL ARTICLE
BEFORE YOU LEAVE...
Sign up for our free China at a Glance newsletter.

A leaked draft of the Pentagon’s forthcoming nuclear weapons review shows that senior defence officials are keen to not only modernise the ageing US arsenal, but add new ways to wage nuclear war as Russia, China and other adversaries bolster their own arsenals.

Among the new weapons proposed are supposedly “low-yield” nukes that could be mounted to existing Trident missiles and launched from submarines. Despite the nickname, the warheads would still probably pack a punch larger than the explosions that destroyed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the second world war, killing tens of thousands of people.

The mushroom cloud of the atomic bomb the United State dropped over the city of Hiroshima, killing tens of thousands of people. Photo: handout

The draft says smaller nuclear weapons are necessary due to the “deterioration of the strategic environment”. The Pentagon’s thesis: if an adversary has an arsenal of nuclear weapons that are not controlled by existing treaties, the United States should have one to match and retaliate if necessary.

“These supplements will enhance deterrence by denying potential adversaries any mistaken confidence that limited nuclear employment can provide a useful advantage over the United States and its allies,” the draft said.

The concept seems especially focused on Russia, which the Pentagon accused of violating the New START Treaty last year by deploying a new nuclear cruise missile that is seen as a threat to Europe, where the US has deployed as many as 240 nuclear weapons. The Pentagon claims that Russia thinks launching a limited nuclear strike first may offer an advantage, in part because it has a variety of small nuclear weapons at its disposal.

“Correcting this mistaken Russian perception is a strategic imperative,” the draft insists.

The Pentagon also calls for a new nuclear submarine-launched cruise missile, typically called a SLCM (“slick-em”) in the military. The Obama administration sought to phase out a similar cruise missile in a nuclear review it released in 2010, but defence officials now argue that it is necessary.

The new weapons could add additional costs to what already promised to be a very expensive bill to modernise the nuclear arsenal, most of which is decades old. An assessment by the Congressional Budget Office released last fall found that it will cost US$1.2 trillion over the next 30 years to build new weapons and maintain them.

US President Donald Trump directed Defence Secretary Jim Mattis early last year to launch the review to assess the state, flexibility and resiliency of the existing arsenal to deter modern adversaries. In a statement on Friday, the Pentagon did not deny the draft document is legitimate but said it is Defence Department policy not to comment on “pre-decision” documents.

“Our discussion has been robust and several draft have been written,” the statement said. “However, the Nuclear Posture Review has not been completed and will ultimately be reviewed and approved by the President and the Secretary of defence.”

The Pentagon is expected to release the nuclear review after Trump’s State of the Union on Address on January 30, though it is not clear whether the timeline has been altered by the leak. A variation of the review was carried out by each of the last two administrations, and typically shapes strategy for years to come.

Critics argue that the US should not be building new weapons. Jon Wolfsthal, a former Obama administration official who worked on nuclear issues on the National Security Council, said the Trump administration is sending a strong message that America will tolerate the use of nuclear weapons, but “runs off the rails” in arguing that new capabilities are needed.

Congress has rejected previous Pentagon efforts to add new submarine-launched warheads, in part because it isn’t clear how Russia would react if a missile is launched at it and the size of the warhead could not be determined, Wolfsthal said.

“These are familiar debates for people in the nuclear community,” Wolfsthal said. “We’ve had them for many, many years, and some of them were considered and rejected under the Obama administration. Some of them were considered and pursued.”_________________--
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.comhttp://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."

1
Blackwater Security founder Erik Prince told US House lawmakers conducting the Russia probe that he discussed US trade policy with Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian government’s investment fund in January, but insisted he wasn’t operating as a back-channel for the incoming Trump administration.

Prince, chairman of the Hong-Kong-based Frontier Services Group, said he knew Dmitriev was a Russian fund manager, but didn’t realise that the Russian government controlled it and that it had been sanctioned by the US since 2015 due to Russia’s actions in Ukraine.

Erik Prince, chairman of the Hong-Kong-based Frontier Services Group. Photo: MCT
The House Intelligence Committee released Wednesday a 105-page transcript of his December 1 testimony to its Russia probe, where he was asked about the January 11 meeting in the Seychelles, a remote Indian Ocean archipelago off East Africa.

That meeting has drawn the attention of congressional committees looking into potentially improper contacts between the Trump campaign and transition team with Russians, and sparked questions about whether Prince may have been an unofficial envoy on behalf of Trump or his associates.

Prince, a former US Navy SEAL and the brother of Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos, denied that. He told the committee he had travelled to the Seychelles nine days before Trump’s inauguration to meet with some potential business customers from the United Arab Emirates.

During that meeting, he said, those potential customers simply “mentioned a guy who I should also meet who was also in town.”

ADVERTISING

inRead invented by Teads
He recounted meeting Dmitriev at a hotel bar, where they discussed topics ranging from oil to commodity prices. He also said that Dmitriev discussed how much his country wished to resume normal trade relations with the US.

SCMP TODAY: HK EDITION
Get updates direct to your inbox

Enter your email address

By registering you agree to our T&Cs & Privacy Policy
“I remember telling him that if Franklin Roosevelt could work with Joseph Stalin to defeat Nazi fascism, then certainly Donald Trump could work with Vladimir Putin to defeat Islamic fascism,” said Prince.

Prince said the meeting lasted 30 minutes.

“So, this notion you were representing the Trump campaign is not true?” Representative Tom Rooney, a Florida Republican, asked him.

“That is correct,” said Prince. “I played no official or, really, unofficial role,” he said of the campaign.

Russian Direct Investment Fund CEO Kirill Dmitriev. Photo: Handout
He said he met Trump himself only once, at a fundraiser prior to the election. He said he was simply a donor, and that he had written some foreign policy papers “into the adviser sphere on what should be done on Middle Eastern or counterterrorism issues.”

After the release of the transcript Wednesday, Representative Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the committee, issued a statement asserting Prince was less than forthcoming about details of the meeting and sought to portray the discussion with Dmitriev as “merely coincidental.”

“Prince also could not adequately explain why he travelled halfway around the world to meet with UAE officials and, ultimately, the head of the Russian fund,” said Schiff.

Schiff also noted that in his testimony, Prince acknowledged that he learned from Trump’s chief campaign strategist Steve Bannon about a secret December 2016 meeting in New York City between high-ranking Trump transition and UAE officials, included the emirate’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. But Prince declined to provide the committee with many specifics of his discussion with Bannon.

Prince also complained during his testimony about US intelligence community spying on Americans, and so-called improper identifying or “unmasking” of Americans caught up in surveillance of foreigners.

“What really bothers me and what I hope the Intelligence Committee is doing is questioning why Americans that were caught in waves of signals intelligence, why on Earth would the Washington Post be running an article on any meeting that a private citizen, me, was having in a foreign country,” he said. “That is illegal.”

Prince claimed to have received a leak of classified information from former intelligence community employees regarding his trip to the Seychelles, but Schiff said he refused to disclose who provided him the information.

Prince is best known for his role running Blackwater, which was hired to provide private security during the US war in Iraq. Controversy erupted in 2007, when Blackwater guards stopping traffic for a State Department convoy shot and killed 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians during a chaotic scene in Baghdad’s Nisour Square.

A leaked draft of the Pentagon’s forthcoming nuclear weapons review shows that senior defence officials are keen to not only modernise the ageing US arsenal, but add new ways to wage nuclear war as Russia, China and other adversaries bolster their own arsenals.

Among the new weapons proposed are supposedly “low-yield” nukes that could be mounted to existing Trident missiles and launched from submarines. Despite the nickname, the warheads would still probably pack a punch larger than the explosions that destroyed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the second world war, killing tens of thousands of people.

The mushroom cloud of the atomic bomb the United State dropped over the city of Hiroshima, killing tens of thousands of people. Photo: handout

The draft says smaller nuclear weapons are necessary due to the “deterioration of the strategic environment”. The Pentagon’s thesis: if an adversary has an arsenal of nuclear weapons that are not controlled by existing treaties, the United States should have one to match and retaliate if necessary.

“These supplements will enhance deterrence by denying potential adversaries any mistaken confidence that limited nuclear employment can provide a useful advantage over the United States and its allies,” the draft said.

The concept seems especially focused on Russia, which the Pentagon accused of violating the New START Treaty last year by deploying a new nuclear cruise missile that is seen as a threat to Europe, where the US has deployed as many as 240 nuclear weapons. The Pentagon claims that Russia thinks launching a limited nuclear strike first may offer an advantage, in part because it has a variety of small nuclear weapons at its disposal.

“Correcting this mistaken Russian perception is a strategic imperative,” the draft insists.

The Pentagon also calls for a new nuclear submarine-launched cruise missile, typically called a SLCM (“slick-em”) in the military. The Obama administration sought to phase out a similar cruise missile in a nuclear review it released in 2010, but defence officials now argue that it is necessary.

The new weapons could add additional costs to what already promised to be a very expensive bill to modernise the nuclear arsenal, most of which is decades old. An assessment by the Congressional Budget Office released last fall found that it will cost US$1.2 trillion over the next 30 years to build new weapons and maintain them.

US President Donald Trump directed Defence Secretary Jim Mattis early last year to launch the review to assess the state, flexibility and resiliency of the existing arsenal to deter modern adversaries. In a statement on Friday, the Pentagon did not deny the draft document is legitimate but said it is Defence Department policy not to comment on “pre-decision” documents.

“Our discussion has been robust and several draft have been written,” the statement said. “However, the Nuclear Posture Review has not been completed and will ultimately be reviewed and approved by the President and the Secretary of defence.”

The Pentagon is expected to release the nuclear review after Trump’s State of the Union on Address on January 30, though it is not clear whether the timeline has been altered by the leak. A variation of the review was carried out by each of the last two administrations, and typically shapes strategy for years to come.

Critics argue that the US should not be building new weapons. Jon Wolfsthal, a former Obama administration official who worked on nuclear issues on the National Security Council, said the Trump administration is sending a strong message that America will tolerate the use of nuclear weapons, but “runs off the rails” in arguing that new capabilities are needed.

Congress has rejected previous Pentagon efforts to add new submarine-launched warheads, in part because it isn’t clear how Russia would react if a missile is launched at it and the size of the warhead could not be determined, Wolfsthal said.

“These are familiar debates for people in the nuclear community,” Wolfsthal said. “We’ve had them for many, many years, and some of them were considered and rejected under the Obama administration. Some of them were considered and pursued.”_________________--
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.comhttp://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forumYou can attach files in this forumYou can download files in this forum